The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-11-07
DR.. oALTon's LECTURE.
Were Shakespeare's Plays Written by
Shakespeare or Somebody Else.

This question, said the lecturer, was never
raised till Shakespeare had been dead for
more than two centuries. Curiously enough,
1t was first asked, not In Old England or
| New England, but In New York. The first
doubter was man and yachtsman,- the
second a doctrinalre woman. Since Miss
Della Bacon's book appeared, it has been
often asked. And now it is about to be
urged with the utmost pertinacity by Igna-
thus Donnelly, the author Of ''the Lost Allan
tis." The zeal displayed by the author in
writing and circulating that book, was
worthy OF a better cause, and from his first
experiment on the credulity Of mankind, we
have reason to believe that his ingenuity
will be exhausted in his present effort to
float this new venture. Not that the query
Is idle, or irrelevant. The subject Is attract
i've and admits Of much being said on both
sides.
Miss Della Bacon, the first woman doubter
assigned the authorship to Lord Bacon, a
point In which she has been generally fol-
lowed. But she encumbered her theory and
greatly weakened her case, by cOntending
that the works OF Shakespeare are mystical
In their meaning, and contain a complete
system OF Philosophy. She was a Shakes
pearean SwedenbOrg Her successors have
contented themselves with assigning the
authorship to Bacon on the general ground
that he, and he alone, could have written
them, for he only was equal to their author
ship. The contention Is that Shakespeare
had not and could not have had 1.-THE Of the
learning displayed in these works.
The author Is perfectly and equally at
home In law, divinity, medicine, history,
philosophy and mythology He knew
French, Italian, Latin and Greek. He made
the old Romans live again, rehabilitated the
leading characters and and events of English
and nAh ha1NA aaNaA
est materials, discovered or rather created, a
new world. Now, II Is argued, Bacon might
have done all this, but Shakespeare never.
So runs the Indictment
How stands the argument on, the other
side, and what is the evidence that Shakes
peare wrote Shakespeare? First, his own
claim which has been allowed by all his con-
temp0raries and his countrymen without
exception to this day. The concurrent testi-
mony of all foreign critics till recently The
endorsement Of the greatest Of them all. a,
w. Schlegel. The unanimous opinion Of all
eminent Shakspearean scholars and liter
airy men who have expressed an opinion, the
men OF all others best qualified TO form an
opinion. Finally, the general belief Of nearly
all Engllshmen, Americans and Germans, on
the ground, that the difficulties of denial las
In religion) are greater than those of belief.
The new theory is similar to that which
and the Odyssey, with this difference, that
many Greek scholars question or deny their
flomeric authorship, while not one really
eminent English scholar has ever publicly
expressed his belief in the BacOnian author
ship of Shakspeare's plays. Bacon was
great man, great scholar and philosopher:
but we have no evidence that he was poet
at all, much less a Shakespeare, or one who
could have written the works generally
ascribed to Shakespeare. His genius was Of
another order-a wholly different kind from
Shakspeare's.
Assuming. then, as we may, that Shaks-
peare wrote Shakespeare, what Is his place
among poets, ancient and modern? In what
relation stood he to contemporary dramatic
poets? Was he wholly apart from, and
above them, or did he differ only in degree?
Doubtless in degree ami not in kind He
was, however, first and easily first In every
element Of greatness. His superiority to all
other dramatic poets Is incOnteStable and Is
not now denied, unless, indeed. few should
claim superiority in certain respects for the
Greek dramatic poets, Aeschylus, SOphocleS
and Euripides. He was certainly greater
than Chaucer In his own line. equally supe-
ri0r TO Spenser and Milton In originality I'M
aginatlon, dramatic power, and above all In
breadth. He was as English as Dryden,
more so than Pope, and Outweighed them so
much. that there Is really no comparison be-
tween them He Is no less superior to Words
worth, Byron, Scott. Southey and Coleridge,
| The admirers Of Browning compare him 10
| Shakespeare, but the difference is immeasura-
| Bile. Tennys0n has written English histori-
Cal uTdudS IN ImlLatlOn OF Shakespeare. but
the resemblance Is faint and there is little
in common but the form. In a word, Shaks-
peare is fdcile princeps the Poet Of England.
and the English Poet.
France has none to compare with him for
moment, and Voltaire Is the one French
man whose writings have shaped the thoughts
and feelings of Frsnchmen as Shakespeare
has those OF the English speaking peoples
Goethe Is the only German poet Compare
bic with Shakespeare, and he IS as far below
MIN In genius as he was above him In eul-
tuTe.
In all the world, there are but two names
In poetry worthy of comparison with that Of
Shakespeare, the names Of Homer and Dante
Dante was, perhaps, as original and more
elevated and learned, but his range Is far
narrower. He Is more local and medieval
Homer alone remains to eentest the title
given him by Virgil in Dante viz "the
Sovereign Poet" Homer had indeed a kin
dred genius, and his the unique title, "The
Father of Poetry" His characters his
scenes, his sympathies take the widest range.
and he has been more translated and read
than any other poet. But as the English and
Teutonic races are evidently to spread over
the whole earth, so English literature will
be the literature OF the future, as the Greek
has been Of the past; and in that future
Shakespeare will be to all the other modern
poets what Homer has been in the past.to
all other ancient poets lthe best ami great
est to whom all others bow down as Poetd
SOurdno.
The lecture was listened to by an interest
ed and sympathetic audience. Every seat